Ticking Off the List
by MerryAnchor16
Summary: "I have ALL," Sanji said, taking another sip out of the bottled water... "It means Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia." Modern day AU. ZoSan/SanZo. A story about life, death and love that perhaps came a little too late...


**AN: first chapter is a little short but the others are longer. Please let me know what you think~**

* * *

'Merry Adolescents Ward'

Zoro read the sign that was embedded into the cream coloured wall and sighed heavily- what was it with everything moving around in this damn place?! He slumped down into one of the fixed and nastily uncomfortable waiting chairs that was drilled into the tiled floor. He lay his crutches down next to his feet.

To his left was a corridor that led to the day surgery rooms and to his right were the dark blue double doors that led down into the Merry Adolescents Ward. The wall had numerous health posters tacked up telling people to wash their filthy hands and sneeze into a tissue. A few hand gel dispensers ran at waist height, but nothing could tell him about where he was. He sighed again and shifted uncomfortably, wincing as his entire body, and the leg encased in its plaster cast, throbbed with pain.

He patted down his hospital gown absent mindedly, smoothing out the creases a little but not enough. His right arm was streaked a bit with blood from where the IV had made its home in the crook of his elbow and he rubbed the flakes of congealed red from off his skin. In his left hand the needle remained but it was no longer hooked up to whatever it was they'd got him on. Zoro scratched his forehead gently, wary of the bandages around the top of his head. He was tired, he'd had a long day, and he just wanted to go home. Was that too much to ask?

A suuden creak of a door made him look up, slight panic grabbing at him at the thought that it'd be one of the nurses or doctors no doubt sent to look for him. What caught him by surprise was something else.

From between the blue doors of the Merry Ward a person slunk out. It was a teen with blue eyes and his head covered in a beanie hat. He wore a blue shirt and grey slack pants and he crept forward and peered around as if looking for someone and relaxed slightly but tensed up when he saw Zoro. He blinked before saying,

"You didn't see me, alright?" He said, his voice a little croaky and Zoro eyed the bandage and the tag around the teen's left hand before holding up his own hand and hospital bracelet with a grin.

"I won't say anything if you don't."

The boy chuckled lightly and coughed, he put his hand in his pocket and fished out a wallet, "Hey, I'm going for something to eat, the shit they serve here isn't exactly nutritious..." He coughed again, "You wanna come with?"

Zoro narrowed his eyes, debating on whether or not he should follow the other teen but before he conjure up an answer the other spoke again, "Oi, you're not sick, are you?"

"What?"

The blue eyed boy sighed, "You're not sick, are you? You don't have a cold or anything, right?"

Zoro shook his head, "No..."

The teen smiled, "Good. I'm Sanji, by the way."

"Zoro." Zoro replied.

"Why's your hair green?" Sanji asked as he walked over, laughing softly when Zoro visibly bristled at the abrupt question. He'd never liked it when people questioned his hair and no one ever believed him when he said it was real. Sanji stooped down and grabbed Zoro's crutches from off the floor, when he straightened up it was with a slight moan and gritted teeth but he forced a smile as he held the sticks apart equally for Zoro to put his arms through, "Heh... Still struggle with that one, I guess. Come on, let's go before they start looking for me, we've got another fifteen minutes before they check my room."

Up this close, Zoro could see the pale complexion of Sanji's skin, the dark circles under his eyes, his eyebrows were so fair it looked like he hadn't got any at all and they were unbalanced in places like he'd tried to shape them without a clue of what he was doing. Also, where some fine strands of hair should be peeking out from under his hat, there were none, just pale creamy skin. Sanji shook the crutches lightly, "Come on or else I'm ditching you and they'll take you back to wherever you're supposed to be."

That threat prompted Zoro into action and he hurried to put all his weight onto his good leg and slip his hands through the hoops up to just below his elbow. Sanji let go of the crutches as soon as he was balanced enough and took off down the left corridor towards the day surgery rooms, beckoning with his bandaged hand. Zoro, with no other option, followed, his crutches clicking on the tiled floor.

* * *

They'd talked little as they made their way to the canteen. Sanji seemed hellbent on getting to the canteen and sighed in irritation everytime he had to stop and wait for Zoro to catch up. By the time they'd got to the hospital restaurant Zoro was exhausted and his body ached worse than ever. Sanji told him to sit down and asked if there was anything he wanted, turning off to the hot food bar and grabbing a drink for Zoro from the fridge along the way.

Zoro watched the teen with a curious look. He wondered what was wrong with Sanji. Other than being deathly pale and having a persistant cough, he couldn't tell what was wrong with him. He looked at Sanji's beanie hat... Wasn't it rude to wear hats indoors?

"I don't know what you like, but I hope this is okay," Sanji said, placing down a plate of macaroni and cheese and a can of Coke from the tray he held in one hand. Zoro noticed how the teen's hand trembled under the weight of the tray and he frowned but didn't say anything about it. It wasn't nice to point out things like that. Instead he smiled gratefully.

"Yeah, it's fine. Thank you," He said, Sanji settling in the seat across the table with a barely hidden grimace of pain, "Oi, are you okay?"

Sanji froze and laughed forcefully, "Oh yeah, I'm great," He shuffled until he was comfortable and fanned himself with a free hand, "Jesus, it's warm in here..."

Zoro pursed his lips. It wasn't warm in here, in fact it was just average room temperature, but he nodded in agreement nonetheless as Sanji picked up the sandwich from his plate and coughed slightly before taking a bite which he washed down with some water.

"So, Zoro, what're you in for?" Sanji asked after swallowing another bite rather roughly, his blue eyes looked expectantly.

Zoro shrugged, pushing around the macaroni with his fork to realease some of its heat, "Eh, just a sports accident," He said vaguely and Sanji frowned.

"Ouch... Looks pretty bad."

"I've had worse."

"Really? Well, anyway," Sanji leaned forward, putting down his sandwich and crossing his arms over the tabletop, "What brought you to my domain?"

"Your domain? What the hell are you talking about?"

Sanji laughed, "I'm the only one on the Merry ward at the moment, therefore it's all mine- my domain."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not how it works." Zoro grinned, "I dunno, just luck I guess. I had to get out of that stupid room, I was going to go insane if I didn't."

"I feel your pain, mosshead," Sanji rasped and coughed again.

Zoro scowled, "Mosshead? What the hell?!"

Sanji laughed wheezily, "Your hair's green and it looks like moss... Is it really that colour?"

"If you mean 'is it natural' then yes." Zoro snapped, shoving a mouthful of macaroni into his mouth as the other grinned stupidly.

"Wow, that's so stupid it's actually pretty cool," He admitted, swallowing some water from the bottle he'd bought, "Well, how about you ask me some questions then, mosshead? It's only fair."

Zoro sucked on the end of the fork thoughtfully for a moment before asking his first question, "So, why are you here?"

Suddenly Sanji bit his lip and his brow furrowed a little, his eyes glanced at the bandage around his left hand and then back at Zoro. He sipped at the water and sucked in a deep breath, "Yeah, sure. I'll tell you."

Zoro suddenly felt bad, as if he were forcing the teen to say something he didn't want to. He put up a hand slightly, "No, it's alright, you don't have to tell me if you don't-"

"I have ALL," Sanji said, taking another sip out of the bottled water causually.

Zoro frowned at him from across the disinfected surface of the canteen table, "A... LL?"

Sanji paused mid mouthful of water and nodded, making some small gestures with his free hand as he swallowed, "It means Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia." He coughed and screwed the cap back onto the bottle.

Zoro blinked, "Wait... Leukaemia? Isn't that-"

"Cancer." Sanji said dully, "Cancer of the blood, actually. My body doesn't produce enough white blood cells and the ones it does produce are irregular and shitty. That's why I asked if you were sick earlier- I haven't exactly got the best immune system right now. The treatment doesn't help either, but you gotta feel worse before you get better, I guess..."

"Oh..." Zoro said softly, "I'm sorry..."

Sanji chuckled then cleared his throat, his voice was still raspy, "What have you got to be sorry for? It's not your fault, mosshead."

Zoro grimaced at the nickname the beanie hatted teen had bestowed him with. Sanji leaned back in his seat and fidgeted with the label of the water and coughed some more.

"It's all stupid," Sanji said, "The whole thing is messed up. I should be out finishing my driving license and drinking at parties and going to concerts my dad would kill me for going to... But instead I'm in here because I have cancer. All a bit stupid," He looked up and into Zoro's eyes, "Don't you think?"

Zoro sat there in a stunned silence for a moment because, honestly, how was someone supposed to react to something like that being said? Suddenly his bad day of having an accident seemed completely insignificant to what the other was going through right this second, "I'm sorry, I-"

Sanji chuckled dryly with a wry smile, "Heh, it's alright, you don't have to answer that and stop apologising!" He laughed a little more securely, "You've nothing to be sorry for." He looked over Zoro's shoulder at something and Zoro turned his head to look at the clock the other was reading, "Hey, look, I'm really sorry but I've got to go. I've got a date with a lovely nurse who's going to tell me what poisons she'll inject me with next..." He smiled at the joke that Zoro found too morbid to get any hilarity from. Sanji stood up stiffly and grabbed his sandwich and water, "Have a good day, mosshead... Hey, if you're hanging around here for a while then you know which ward to find me on. Just go to the desk and ask for Sanji Blackleg... It'd be nice to have someone my age to hang around with for once." He grinned, "See you soon, mosshead."

"You too," Zoro said, rolling his eyes at the nickname once again and watching as Sanji left the canteen through the double doors and inwardly made plans to visit the teen tomorrow. But first he had a no doubt angry doctor to get back to.


End file.
